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Immortan Voidriders
Fighting for glory and survival along Frater Unhol's debris rings are the voidriders of Immortan. These warriors of space are relentless in their pursuit of victory and pious in their worship of the ghosts in their machines. In the name of the Kingdom Immortan and by the Emperor's grace, they have risen from scavengers to peacekeepers of Frater Unhol's ring, and as the forty-first Millennium comes to an end, they look outward in great number, ready to join in the holy crusade. Doctrine and Culture Honor of the Warriors The abhuman voidsmen of the Kingdom Immortan are far from the savage brutes they are made out to be by the dogmatic Puritans and frail nobility obsessed with the purity of blood and primordial humanity. They are in a fact a people of warriors, bound to oath and faith as any imperial soldiers are, and in their loyalty to the Golden Throne, they are as strong as any leader could demand. In battle, they fight for the glory and victory of an Imperium known to them only through the tales and traces left aboard those countless vessels stranded in the graveyard of starships around Frater Unhol. From the pieces of scripture and murals, artifacts and the tales of voidfarers meeting them, they meticulously construct an understanding of the galaxy and of those ideals embodied in the greatest heroes of the Imperium. Looking at these images for hope, they fight with an aspiration seldom matched by the common soldiery of the Imperium. Legacy of old machines Their starship steeds are wrought from the wreckage of discarded vessels, the debris of ancient freighters and broken in-system fleets. Such concoctions would be deemed heretechnical, if not for the utmost devotion of Immortan's shipbuilders to the spirits of their craft. They do not twist the forged metal, nor force systems into unholy amalgamations, but solely seek to extend the useful life of every component to an extent beyond the craft and skill of anyone outside the Adeptus Mechanicus. This noble intent struck a chord of sympathy with some influential figures in the Cult Mechanicus Cambria. While they would never be convinced of its worth by the word of the abhumans alone, they cannot question the soothing binary hum of re-awakened machine-spirits allowed to serve their original function again. Doctrine The voidriders of Immortan value their machines and the ancient purpose for which each component of their vessels was created. Thus, they seek to utilize every last part of their arsenal to its maximum potential effect, resorting to highly unconventional tactics to accommodate the extremely specialized roles of each individual vessel of their fleet. In doing so, the voidriders profit from the unpredictable nature of their irregular craft, while still utilizing the merits of combined formations and a clear chain of command. Though superficially, the subtleties of imperial command structure are lost in the ferocious warbands of the voidriders, the underlying principles still apply in the fanatically stratified ranks of the fleets and clans operating each vessel. Astrography All vessels of the voidriders hail from ports in the vicinity of Frater Unhol, its countless moons and lesser worlds, habitats and inhabited isles. Journeys of Memory For the longest part of history, deployments of the voidriders were seldom seen outside this system in any significant number, though each vessel did make independent expeditions deep into the imperial systems of the sector. Most of the time, these journeys retrace the last journeys of the revered vessels that once bore the core components of each voidrider ship. On these paths, the Voidriders are often confronted with the inhospitality of the Imperium toward their kind, a test of loyalties for all who swore to serve Immortan regardless of any other voice. Those who return from such journeys often do so with a mission, a tale and a legend about the legacy of their ship, picking from it a goal to set for their clan and crew. From time to time, as it was the case in the waning decades of the forty-first Millennium, the fleets of Immortan change their disposition and deploy in greater numbers far from home. In these instances, when they are called upon by other imperial allies or by a shared conviction to a greater cause, the Voidriders become a force to reckon for any force foolish enough to underestimate the strength of the abhuman fervor. History The history of the voidriders began when the clans of Frater Unhol were united under the King and Leader Immortan. Thus, their first great victory was the end of the War of Pacification. At that time, the fleets were still rag-tag collections of half-understood technology, heretical in places and ineffective in others. Yet, through their long alignment with elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus and their conversion to the creed of the Omnissiah, the Voidriders have begun to rectify the mistakes and affronts inherent in their forces and become a notable ally to the tech-priests of Ringworld Cambria.